Memorial Health System Named Regional Mass Vaccination Center

Tuesday, March 9th, 2021

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Media Contact:
Jennifer Offenberger, Associate Vice President, Service Excellence:
Email: joffenberger@mhsystem.org
Phone: (740) 374-1797

Last week, Ohio’s governor, Mike DeWine, announced Memorial Health System would be one of 15 regional mass vaccine destinations throughout the state of Ohio. With this initiative, Memorial Health System will be distributing around 2,500 vaccine doses per week, starting at the beginning of April.
Vaccination clinics will be established on Saturdays and Sundays.

With this influx in supply and a commitment from the state to keep the supply steady, we will deliver a large number of vaccines to those in both our community and our surrounding region, reducing the chance and severity of COVID-19 infections. We expect the majority of these to be of the vaccine developed by Johnson & Johnson.

Stephon Poulton, Memorial Health System’s clinical pharmacist specialist for infectious disease, said all three vaccines are equivalent when all things are considered:

“The current data says the vaccine is 66-67% effective in preventing the recipient from being infected with COVID- 19,” Poulton said. “But that’s a small piece of the puzzle. This vaccine is also 85% effective at preventing any infection from becoming severe. This is important, because it’s the severe cases that require patients to be put on oxygen and admitted to the hospital. This is about the same as the other vaccines, and it only requires one shot. No matter the vaccine you are offered, I recommend you take it.”

Memorial Health System will continue to prioritize recipients on our waitlist based on the distribution guidelines set forth by the state of Ohio. Information on our waitlist and current phase can be found at mhsystem.org/coronavirus. Due to the high demand, we also encourage those interested to explore other options for receiving the vaccine. If you receive a vaccine through a different distributor, please call (740) 373-5892 to have your name removed from our list.

Memorial Health System: Memorial Health System is a not-for-profit integrated health system lead by a volunteer board of community members committed to providing comprehensive care services that meet the needs of our region. We are comprised of a network of locations and specialties provided by over 3,000 employees that include three hospitals (Marietta Memorial Hospital, Selby General Hospital and Sistersville General Hospital), outpatient service sites, and provider clinics. Memorial Health System strives to deliver quality care and service with an additional focus on medical education and community service. We invest in the most advanced technologies and treatments today, giving our patients the care that they need, so they can stay close to home.